Music for a hot summer evening

We were driving home from Provincetown, after a wonderful birthday celebration for our friend George, during last night’s lightning storm. It was steamy and sultry night and every few minutes, the sky ahead of us would light up with forks of electricity. We were listening to a music mix that I put together following our trip to Spain last April – slow and moody - perfect for a hot summer evening.

One of the tracks was “Falling Slowly” from the 2006 film “Once”. It tells the story of a Dublin street musician and a young Czech immigrant who flirt, collaborate, and struggle with personal relationships over the course of a week. The actors – Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova – composed and performed all of the original songs in the film. The movie is bittersweet, beautifully gritty, and “real”.

The scene that features “Falling Slowly” is my favorite. It takes place in a music store where the young woman (neither of the characters have names in the movie) learns one of the musician’s songs. That particular clip is not available on YouTube, but I found this wonderful performance from The Late Show with David Letterman. The song earned Hansard and Irglova an Oscar for “Best Original Song” and was truly deserved.


Let me know what you think of the clip below and whether or not you’ve seen the movie. Obviously, I’m recommending it highly.